Top 10 longest-serving leaders

TEODORO OBIANG NGUEMA MBASOGO: 30 years, 7 months. Mr. Obiang assumed power in Equatorial Guinea when he kicked his uncle Macias out of the palace in August 1979. He was elected in 1996 and 2002 during the country’s first two multi-party elections, both widely deemed fraudulent. The 2008 article “Who's Africa’s Worst Dictator?” that appeared in Slate wrote of Obiang: “His is the Switzerland of dictatorships—so effective at enforcing obedience that the spectacle of unrest is invisible.”